Event Title

Presenter Information

Location

Parker-Reed, SSWAC

Start Date

30-4-2015 9:00 AM

End Date

30-4-2015 10:55 AM

Project Type

Poster

Description

I will be taking a closer look at the psychological aspect of the Peter Singers overseas donation thought experiment to show that there are limitations to the view he presents which consequently complicates his final conclusion. Singer claims that by reasoning we should be able to factor in distance, contact when making a moral decision without realizing that reason might not be the only decision driver. Before I jump into three rounds of experiments I will examine Singers argument and its flaws and the questions that can be asked to deliver a better understanding of his project. The overseas donation scenario involves asking the viewer of a donation commercial to donate to charity abroad to feed a family while forgoing saving up for a smartphone. I conduct three rounds of experiments: 1) asking people whether it is mandatory to donate and why it might not be, 2) Observing how reliability of the charity plays into the donation and 3) screening off the other reasons people provided for not donating to search for dumbfounding. My hypothesis is that people are opposed to the idea of donating to charities and that their reasons for not doing so are post hoc rationalization which can be tested by looking for dumbfounding.

Faculty Sponsor

John Waterman

Sponsoring Department

Colby College. Philosophy Dept.

CLAS Field of Study

Humanities

Event Website

http://www.colby.edu/clas

ID

1765

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Apr 30th, 9:00 AMApr 30th, 10:55 AM

Boundaries of rationality

Parker-Reed, SSWAC

I will be taking a closer look at the psychological aspect of the Peter Singers overseas donation thought experiment to show that there are limitations to the view he presents which consequently complicates his final conclusion. Singer claims that by reasoning we should be able to factor in distance, contact when making a moral decision without realizing that reason might not be the only decision driver. Before I jump into three rounds of experiments I will examine Singers argument and its flaws and the questions that can be asked to deliver a better understanding of his project. The overseas donation scenario involves asking the viewer of a donation commercial to donate to charity abroad to feed a family while forgoing saving up for a smartphone. I conduct three rounds of experiments: 1) asking people whether it is mandatory to donate and why it might not be, 2) Observing how reliability of the charity plays into the donation and 3) screening off the other reasons people provided for not donating to search for dumbfounding. My hypothesis is that people are opposed to the idea of donating to charities and that their reasons for not doing so are post hoc rationalization which can be tested by looking for dumbfounding.